


One Down

by Thistlerose



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Easter, Father-Daughter Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Holidays, adoptive families
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-07-15 16:05:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7229296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thistlerose/pseuds/Thistlerose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Holidays are going to be tough, Joe thinks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Down

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be part of something larger, in which Joe tries to navigate all the holidays, plus birthdays, with some success (Barry was an understandably difficult kid). I forget what distracted me, but I only ever ended up writing this one scene. I rediscovered it recently, and it seemed appropriate for Father's Day weekend.

Holidays are going to be tough, Joe thinks. He tries to make plans for them well in advance, flipping through his desk calendar late at night, after Iris and Barry have gone to bed. With a red Sharpie, he draws a circle around each upcoming pitfall: Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas… Birthdays, too. Well, he's got some time, he tells himself. Better start making plans now and hope he can get the time off from work.

The first holiday - Easter - isn't so bad. The Wests never made that big a deal about it and - apparently, if Barry's mumbled responses to Joe's gentle questions can be trusted - neither did the Allens. Nevertheless, as soon as foil-wrapped chocolate eggs hit the shelves of the local drugstore, Joe buys an armload, plus two pink-and-green plastic baskets, some of that green plastic confetti (which he just knows he's going to be finding bits of all over the house for the next three months), and a couple of plush rabbits. The arrangements he throws together aren't going to win any accolades from Martha Stewart, but the kids seem excited when they find them outside their bedroom doors on Easter morning. 

He lets them eat some of their candy while they watch cartoons in their pajamas. Then he takes them to the park to burn off some of that sugar, and also because it's one of those cool but sunny April days and they _should_ be outside. He watches the two if them ride their bikes around the park perimeter, Iris in the lead, her pigtails bouncing, the wind puffing out her blue windbreaker. Barry always seems to be a few yards behind, but his short, skinny legs are pumping hard, so Joe imagines it's only a matter of time before he catches up.

Joe had some misgivings about the rabbits. He thought they were cute when he saw them in the store, but after he got them home he started to wonder if they weren't a little juvenile; the kids are eleven, after all. But that night, when Joe goes to check on them about an hour after lights out, he sees that Iris has given her rabbit pride of place on her dresser, right next to her pink ballerina jewelry box. He can't see what Barry has done with his … but there's a small, suspicious lump under the blanket beside him.

One down, Joe thinks with a sigh.

11/6/2014


End file.
